Honeymoon Hitchhikers: Archival Letters to Creative Nonfiction

Abstract

This creative nonfiction project is based on the letters written by Mildred La Due Mead to her family during the time that she and her newlywed husband were in California after eloping and leaving Minnesota. The letters, held by the Minnesota Historical Society, give fairly detailed accounts of arriving in California mere days after the stock market crashed in 1929 and the following year as the newlyweds struggle to establish themselves in their new environment. Selections of these letters have been transformed into a narrative structure, taking historical context into account and attempting to stay as true to the letters as possible, only extrapolating to fill the gaps when necessary. Mildred’s family, the La Dues, was one of the founding families of Fertile, MN.